Home Improvement: More Tile Installation

If you have been following the blog or my Facebook page, then you know that we have been working on various home remodeling projects here - including (but certainly not limited to) - replacing our white wall-to-wall carpet throughout the downstairs with porcelain wood-look plank tile.  

Downstairs includes our master bedroom. And once we had pulled up the old carpet, it was completely necessary to take the opportunity to repaint as well. The original walls were a mossy green - which I updated to a more muted bronze months ago.

We started laying our tile in the bedroom at the beginning of July. I will be honest: I thought we would have been done with the entire project by now. But we had a bit of a setback in having purchased and used the wrong mortar for the job when starting out - resulting in having to take up and reset a lot of previously laid tile. And there is also the problem which will never go away: my choice of tile.

Porcelain wood-look plank tile (6" x 24"):  A few things you should know (that we did not know when we decided to use it.)  First, porcelain is very hard and difficult to cut - a decent quality tile saw is absolutely imperative if you want to finish tiling with porcelain within a generation.  Also - as we learned the very hard and tearful way following our wrong-mortar fiasco - the 24" sides mean that plank-style tile is always considered a large format tile - no matter how narrow the planks may be (purchase the appropriate mortar).  Everything else is concerning the relative dimensions of the tiles.  And I do mean relative.  The tiles are not the same thickness.  They are not the same overall size.  They are not perfectly square - some curve significantly.  They are not a consistent thickness throughout the tile.  Many have a substantial bow to them and will not set flat on the floor (something you have to make up for with some creative mortar beds).  All of this means that it is impossible to get a perfectly consistent grout line or a perfectly straight line on long runs of tile.  The stuff is great if you start out with the idea in your head that you want a rather random and rustic look.  (Fortunately, that's exactly what I wanted.)  If not, you will surely lose your mind.

We have officially finished the bedroom - which looks fantastic.  No regrets!  Even though it took at least six weeks longer than we had anticipated.  We now have somewhere comfortable to sleep so that we can rest up and conquer the rest of the downstairs floors.

We have begun laying out the tile for the remaining hallway and into the foyer.  I am a little anxious about the incredibly long runs that have to happen from the front door to the back of the living room and we are hoping that enough planned randomness will compensate for less than perpendicular lines... Besides dark (black!) grout covers a multitude of sins.

Now I have to stop talking about it and get to work - I hear Dave mixing a bucket of mortar as I type.  

Posted by Anita

Hates wall-to-wall carpeting ​this much.